Parliamentary Secretaries compared: Some veteran MPs out; some rookies are in

Prime Minister Stephen Harper named his Parliamentary Secretaries to his Ministers today. Parliamentary Secretaries can have a variety of duties but, basically, they are there to act for the minister in the House of Commons when the Minister is absent and be the link between Parliament and the minister. The folks at About.com seems to have a pretty reasonable backgrounder on the job if you'd like to learn more.

A Parliamentary Secretary can count on a slightly thicker pay packet than your garden-variety backbencher. All MPs earn a base salary of $157,731 a year but a P.S. gets an extra $15,834 a year.

If you're in the government caucus, being a member of the ministry is best, a parliamentary secretaryship is not bad, and, if you don't get either of those, you're probably angling to be chair of one of the House of Commons committees. MPs get an extra $11,165 for being a committee chair. (In fact, some parliamentary geek types tell me that in a majority parliament, being a committee chair may actually be more influential and interesting than being a Parliamentary Secretary.)

Depending on the prime minister, a parliamentary secretary's job can be a try-out for a full-time minister's job. Some prime minister's, prefer to look to those who have been chairs of House of Commons committees for future ministers.  In the current ministry, Maxime Bernier, Steven Blaney, Ed Fast, and Gary Goodyear were chairs of committees before being elevated. (Bernier went from full minister to committee chair and is now a minister of state)

Here's a list of Parliamentary Secretaries since Stephen Harper became prime minister in 2006 prepared by the Library of Parliament (Note to any librarians reading this blog: Laurie Hawn, the P.S. to the minister of national defence at the conclusion of the 40th Parliament is missing in this list). Harper has promoted just five MPs from Parliamentary Secretary all the way to full Minister. They include John Duncan, Jason Kenney, James Moore, Christian Paradis, and Peter Van Loan, . Harper has promoted seven ParlSecs to the Minister of State role including DIane Ablonczy, Steven Fletcher, Helena Guergis, Ted Menzies, Rob Moore, Alice Wong, and Lynne Yelich.

So, I think it's fair to say that becoming a Parliamentary Secretary is helpful but it's not necessarily going to put you in line for a cabinet spot.

In fact, as you'll see from the list below, six MPs who were Parliamentary Secretaries at the conclusion of the last Parliament do not hold that role as the 41st Parliament begins. Not returning in their ParlSec role are: Laurie Hawn (gets to be on some sub-committee of Treasury Board instead but there's nothing I can find in the House of Commons rules that gives him extra money for that work), Brian Jean, Greg Kerr, Ed Komarnicki, Dave MacKenzie, and Mark Warawa.

In fact: Just one MP who was a ParlSec at the conclusion of that last Parliament got a promotion: Alice Wong moves up to become Minister of State for Seniors.

And while four members of the ministry were defeated on May 2 — Lawrence Cannon, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Josee Verner and Gary Lunn — just two Parliamentary Secretaries went down to defeat at the polls: Sylvie Boucher and Daniel Petit.

There is a lot of “stability”, to use the PMO's fave phrase, in the current roster of Parliamentary Secretaries. Just two MPs who were backbenchers a month ago are getting a promotion.That would be Paul Calandra and Candice Hoeppner. But there are eight rookie MPs who will make their House of Commons debuts next week as Parliamentary Secretaries. They are: Eve Adams, Chris Alexander, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Robert Goguen, Kellie Leitch, Chungsen Leung, Michelle Rempel, and Susan Truppe.

One other note: Two ministers of state from the last Parliament — Rob Moore and Rob Merrifield — not only fell out of the ministry but neither are parliamentary secretaries.

So here's my list of MPs with their job at the end of the 40th Parliament and their job as the 41st Parliament opens: